Lebanese authorities have failed to uphold the right to electricity by mismanaging the sector for decades, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 127-page report, “‘Cut Off from Life Itself’: Lebanon’s Failure on the Right to Electricity,” argues that electricity is fundamental to nearly every aspect of living and participating in present- day societies, and as such, the internationally protected right to an adequate standard of living includes the right of everyone, without discrimination, to sufficient, reliable, safe, clean, accessible, and affordable electricity. At present, the government provides electricity for only one to three hours a day on average, while people who can afford it supplement that supply with private generators. The public sector and private generator industry rely on polluting climate-intensive fossil fuels. The electricity crisis has exacerbated inequality in the country, severely limited people’s ability to realize their most basic rights, and pushed them further into poverty. “Lebanon’s electricity crisis is leaving people in the dark and dramatically reducing people’s access to critical rights such as food, water, education, and health care,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The dire situation in Lebanon illustrates why access to safe, clean, and affordable electricity isn’t merely an amenity, but is a human right that the state has an obligation to fulfill.” For almost 30 years, Lebanese authorities have failed to properly manage the state-run electricity company, Électricité du Liban (EDL), resulting in widespread blackouts. The decades of unsustainable policies and fundamental neglect, the result of elite capture of state resources, alleged corruption, and vested interests caused the sector to completely collapse in 2021 amid the ongoing economic crisis, leaving the country without power through most of the day. For decades, successive governments have promised to reform the electricity sector, but those promises have not materialized. Instead of appointing members to an independent Electricity Regulatory Authority to direct the sector, as mandated by law, the Council of Ministers, particularly the minister of energy and water, exerts almost complete control over the sector with little transparency and accountability. The minister has control over issuing production licenses and permits, making policies regarding the sector, supervising those policies, and providing financial oversight. Politicians and politically connected individuals have used the electricity sector to further their political goals, including by doling out jobs at the government-run company to make huge profits from lucrative contracts, often at the state’s expense, and reap profits from the private generator market. A lucrative, though expensive and highly polluting, private diesel generator market has been filling the supply gap for decades, but it is available only to those who can afford it. Steady electricity in Lebanon has effectively become a service only the wealthiest can afford, reinforcing the country’s deep-seated inequality and further pushing people into poverty. Since October 2019, Lebanon’s economy has been mired in a deep financial crisis that culminated in the country’s first sovereign default in March 2020. The economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, political deadlock, and the explosion in the port of Beirut in August 2020 aggravated a recession and accelerated the economy’s collapse. Inflation soared to 145 percent on average in 2021, placing Lebanon third globally in terms of the highest inflation rates, after Venezuela and Sudan. Year over year inflation for electricity, gas, and water peaked at nearly 600 percent in June 2022. The economic and electricity crises have destroyed the livelihood of tens of thousands of people. Unemployment, declining remittances, and the removal of subsidies for key imports have pushed millions of people into poverty and exacerbated existing destitution. The United Nations estimates that more than two-thirds of Lebanon’s population now live in poverty. Human Rights Watch partnered with the Consultation and Research Institute (CRI), a local research firm, to survey over 1,200 households, the results of which demonstrated the extent to which the electricity crisis exacerbates inequality, pushes people into poverty, hinders access to basic rights like food, water, and health, and causes extensive air pollution that affects the environment, and health and contributes to a worsening climate crisis. Nine out of every ten households surveyed said the cost of electricity affected their ability to pay for other essential services.